COMING face to face with the Iron Duke when your uniform does not fit is not the best start to the day.

On the bicentenary of the Battle of Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington scowled with barely disguised contempt as I stood to attention in a jacket and heavy black shako or tall cap borrowed from Dutchman Gerard Massar of the 16th Queen Charlotte's Light Dragoons.

But I got off lightly compared to a private who had passed by without his hat. "Where's your hat, man?" barked Britain's most famous general. "Your corporal will hear of this." And he flicked him with his riding crop.

Yet as we walked through the British encampment of white bivouacs, the veteran soldiers awaiting their orders kept shouting their praise.

"God bless you, your grace," shouted one veteran.

The Duke - or Derbyshire-based professional event performer and consultant Alan Larsen - wheeled round and said of the looming battle: "It all depends on that there."

For Mr Larsen takes playing the Duke of Wellington at the 200th anniversary re-enactments seriously.

This is the second time the New Zealander has played Wellington, but he has worked his way up through the ranks for the honour.

When he is not starring as Wellington he is a sergeant in his own re-enactment group, the 1st Royal Dragoons, who have 14 horses and 10 troopers over this week.

Mr Larsen, 55, who has been fascinated by the Napoleonic period since seeing the film Waterloo as a schoolboy, said: "This is a huge honour. It's the peak of a career.

"I admire the man but I do not necessarily like the man.

To our modern sensibilities he would be the worst type of reactionary but he was the general who stopped the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars and brought 40 years of peace and prosperity to Europe.

This is a huge honour. It's the peak of a career. I admire the man but I do not necessarily like the man. To our modern sensibilities he would be the worst type of reactionary but he was the general who stopped the horrors of the Napoleonic Wars and brou

Alan Larsen, professional event performer

"He even set up the conditions which let us indulge ourselves in re-enactments like this instead of fighting for real."

He clearly feels some rivalry with his opponent, Napoleon, played by Paris lawyer Frank Samson.

"I have met him. He was very French. If you are an offending Paris motorist and need to get off a driving charge, I am sure he is the man you need to know."

Asked what he is most looking forward to at the re-enactments, he said it was the rout of the French when for the first time in their history Napoleon's supposedly invincible Imperial Guard fled in panic.

He said: "From a performance point of view what I am looking forward to is that moment when the French Army takes to its heels and I have the chance to repeat that great Wellington line: 'Damn me if I ever saw 10,000 men run a race before.'"

But Mr Larsen, who is shunning the comfort of hotels to stay in his horse truck to be close to his men and his bay gelding Mercurio, learned the limits of his power.

He said: "I tried to get to a radio interview this morning but the Belgian police would not let the Duke of Wellington through on his own bloody battlefield.